Although it is still obviously only May and there is plenty of baseball left, this teams early success is totally opposite in terms of where it comes from than that team. The 2006 Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya led Metropolitans had the fifth highest payroll in baseball. Most of the team was either acquired through trades or big free agent signings. The lineup was feared by all. The top five hitters were the best in baseball. Jose Reyes, Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, and David Wright. Reyes was the perfect lead off hitter, he stole 64 bases. Paul Lo Duca batted .318, if anyone on this years team batted near that it would be a miracle. Tying the franchise record for single season home runs in 2006 Carlos Beltran hit 41 that year. He had an amazing year and was worth every penny of the biggest contract in franchise history at the time he signed following he 2004 season.
The cleanup hitter Carlos Delgado was a monster, hitting 38 home runs while driving in 114 RBIs. David Wright, the current captain, also had a tremendous 2006, batting .311 with 26 homers and 116 RBIs. Three hitters with 114+ RBIs, three .300+ hitters, and three 25+ Home runs. All five of those players played more than 120 games as well. The team was built on hitting and they did it well. Now I know what the reader is thinking, offenses were all much better, which is true. But league ranking is constant with the league average no matter the year. The 2006 Mets were seventh in Major League Baseball in both runs scored and Home runs hit. They were second in Stolen Bases, ninth in doubles and sixth in runs batted in.
This year’s team is in the twenties in all those categories through a month and a half of 2015 baseball (25th in runs, 26th in HRs, 21 in SBs, 25th in doubles, and 24 in RBIs). No matter how you slice it the offense stinks, compared to the league or not. This years squad doesn’t have the true lead off hitter that Reyes was. This years team won’t have ONE 100 RBI hitter (haven’t had one since 2008). This team is 21st in payroll, led by Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson. This team has more homegrown players than not. The offense is the negative but unlike the 2006 team this team has great pitching. The 2006 team had only two pitchers win more than ten games (Glavine and Trachsel). The lowest ERA on that team was now hall of famer Tom Glavine at 3.82. The top strikeout pitcher on that team was 2015 hall of fame inductee Pedro Martinez, he wasn’t even in the top 45 pitchers in baseball in strikeouts though.
This year’s starting pitching is the teams strength and so far so good. All five starters in the opening day rotation and two to make spot starts have been through the Mets minor league system. Through the early part of the season the Mets are second in baseball with a team era under 3. Four current pitchers in the rotation have an ERA under 3.50. They have three pitchers in the top 40 in strikeouts. Only Nine pitchers have five plus wins and Matt Harvey and Bartolo Colon are two of them. Colon is the only pitcher in the whole national league with six. If the 2015 Mets want to have success as the 2006 team did they will have to do it in a much different way, pitching pitching and more pitching.
